Golf Stories from Longhorn Fans and Longhorn players

Golf – George Machock and the 1971 Longhorn Golf National Champions

George Machock was a Two-Time Honorable Mention All-American in 1970 and ’71 and the UT Golf Team MVP in 1970. As young high school golfers in Austin, Tom Kite (McCallum), Ben Crenshaw & William Cromwell (Austin High), and George (St. Edward’s HS) grew up playing against each other. Besides being opponents, they all became lifelong friends, and in playing golf rounds together at Austin’s Muny, they discussed bringing a National Golf Title to UT together as a team. Though other schools were options, the UT Football program headed up by UT Coach Darrell Royal (who played and loved golf) and what he was doing on a National level made an impression on each one of these friends, who felt strongly that they wanted to stick to home and win a National Golf Championship at UT that had eluded UT to that time.
As it turned out, they did win in ’71, George’s Senior year and the unique thing about the ’71 National Championship was the fact that all four players whose scores counted were all Austinites. That probably will never happen again with an NCAA team of four or more players. Additionally, the fifth player in the NCAA that year, George Tucker, was from \
San Antonio (all Texans). Tucker and Machock tied score-wise in the NCAA at 292, so all five team members truly won the Championship together.
Looking back, George Machock has always appreciated all that Coach Hannon did to help make things smoother for him. Machock had two sons with his wife Helen before his Junior year at UT.
Machock also had two 2nd place Medal Score individual finishes at the ’70 and ’71 All America College Golf Tournament in Houston, sponsored by Coach perennial National Champions Dave Williams of the Houston Cougars. The All-American tournament was second only to the NCAA Championship in quality of players.
George chose not to play golf at the professional level. The family came first. A responsible decision that has rewarded him his whole life.

George keeps a close connection with today’s golf teams and is proud that 51 years ago, he was part of the first National champion golf team, and now there are four national Longhorn golf champions.

John Dean– about Ben Crenshaw 2/22/2021

I was good friends with the University of Houston’s AD, Harry Fouke. He ran the athletic department with a one-person support staff. When he retired, they replaced him with a small army of staff.

Way back in the day, I was playing a junior golf tournament in Gonzalez, Texas. When I got there, a buzz was floating around — “He’s here!…He’s here!”. The “he” in question was Ben Crenshaw, who already had a reputation. He was playing a couple of groups ahead, so I had a measuring score to go by. At the turn, I was one shot behind and playing damn good. On the fourteenth hole, a par five, I was teeing up and feeling stout. About thirty yards in front of the tee box on the right, someone planted a sapling, and it was a sad little spare thing. It was so small that I decided to ignore it and hit away. Not only did I hit it, but I also hit it square, and the ball ricocheted directly backward, across the tee box and another fifty yards behind. I was hitting two from way behind the tee. I three-putted for a ten and ended up shooting 83 for the round—eleven shots behind the winner, Ben.

As I said, I played golf. Golf won.

Kathryn Riviere Anderson– about Coach Weis

I played golf at UT for Coach Weis 1979-1983

She was an incredible pioneer for women’s sports, and so many of her players kept in touch with her through the years. We owe her so much. Thank you for posting this.

Swimming

KEN MCLELAND

01/05/2024 -The contrast between the pool at Gregory Gym and the Jamail Swimming Complex is staggering. Even though there weren’t lily pads growing in the pool at Gregory, I would have never been surprised to walk in and find them growing there. SMU ruled the SWC, winning titles from “53 to ’81…Coach Patterson’s teams got us close and almost there several times. I would wear my cheerleader outfit and go to meets to show support while few were in attendance. Still, it made for exciting times with teams that gave it their all to dethrone SMU… Ken McLeland

Dwight Richey

Coach Pat also sponsored the UT – P.E.M. (Physical Education Majors) Club, now known as Kinesiology. He met the club members early Sunday mornings at the Westside upper deck at DKR.

At the stadium after a football home game, he and the club members cleaned their assigned area to raise funds for club activities. He put on some heavy gloves and was a great mentor. I know he also worked for Van Vleck ISD, and I think he may have also worked at Eanes ISD(Westlake). He was a wonderful man.

Coach Pat Patterson about the first Black at Texas Coach. 3/10/2022

I coached Women’s swimming at same time Rodney coached Women’s basketball. Not much financial help. Mostly volunteers helping coach. Very few school sponsors

Billy,

Early in my banking career as a correspondent banker, I was calling on a customer bank, believe it was in Fredericksburg, and I saw Hondo in the bank lobby. When I introduced myself, he gave me his business card, which basically sums up Hondo. I still cherish meeting him and have kept his business card on my desk for over 40 years. Eddie Phillips

LJ Cohen

I had never heard of Hondo until he spoke at the Longhorn Spring Sports Banquet probably in 1967. I was mesmerized by this small, white-bearded man with a squeaky voice telling stories about his time swimming for UT, an All American, life during the Depression, a living in the Hill Country. I became a fan for life. He was a character. I never saw or heard of him again until the song Luckenbach, Texas came out in 1977. That’s when I learned Hondo bought the town in 1970.

If you want to hear what a character he was, click here.

Read about the story of Hondo Crouch here.